European Court of Human Rights finds Russia’s ‘gay propaganda law’ discriminatory
The European Court of Human Rights has found a violation of freedom of expression and of the prohibition of discrimination in Russia’s ‘gay propaganda law.
The case concerned a complaint brought by three Russian gay rights activists (Nikolay Bayev, Aleksey Kiselev and Nikolay Alekseyev) about legislation in Russia banning the promotion of homosexuality, also known as the ‘gay propaganda law’. In a series of legislative acts – most recently in 2013 – ‘promoting non-traditional sexual relationships’ among minors was made an offence punishable by a fine. As a protest against these laws, the three activists had staged demonstrations between 2009 and 2012. They were subsequently found guilty of administrative offences and given fines.
In today’s judgment in the case of Bayev and Others v. Russia the European Court of Human Rights held, by six votes to one (that of Russian judge Dmitry Dedov), that there had been: a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights, and a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) in conjunction with Article 10 of the Convention.
The Court found in particular that, although the laws in question aimed primarily at protecting minors, the limits of those laws had not been clearly defined and their application had been arbitrary. Moreover, the very purpose of the laws and the way they were formulated and applied in the applicants’ case had been discriminatory and, overall, served no legitimate public interest. Indeed, by adopting such laws the authorities had reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia, which was incompatible with the values of a democratic society.
Russia will have to pay EUR 8,000 to Mr Bayev, EUR 15,000 to Mr Kiselev and EUR 20,000 to Mr Alekseyev in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
